Reversible woven flat fabrics



Dec. 4, 1956 w. A. LINEHAN, JR 2,77 8

REVERSIBLE WOVEN FLAT FABRICS Filed Sept. 17, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor:

William A. Linehan, Jr.

By aim/M his Attorney Dec. 4, 1956 w. A. LINEHAN, JR 2,772,698

REVERSIBLE WOVEN FLAT FABRICS Filed Sept. 17, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 5

Inventor.

' William A. Linehan, Jr.

his Attorney Un d w. P re o w This'invention relates to reversible woven flat fabrics bearing designs and is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No. 243,215 filed August 23, 19 51, now abandoned. 4

- In weavingfiat fabrics bearing .desig'ns',it has heretofore been the practice to weave the entire fabric of single thickness with the result that a designwoven into the fabricappears in obverse on one face andin reverse on the other. Although of no consequence in many applications of fabrics, this aspect of woven designs is of.

moment in reversible fabrics, whether one face is' exposed at a time, as in tableor, headcl-oth-s, or both faces are-normally used, as in toweling, since the reversal of the fabric is immediately discernible. Among. woven designs, legends, such as usually are employed on the towels and other linens of public establishments and common carriers, present a particular problem, since when reversed, they are comparatively illegible. It has therefore been proposed in my patent application, Serial No. 174,285, filed July 17, 1950, now abandoned, to weave identical legends into spaced portions of a fabric, one upside down, so that, when the portions are'folded and stitched backto-back,the fabric will have identical legends on both faces. Although a solution for special pur poses such-as the head rests to which that application is directed, the field of use of such fabrics is limited, they having the disadvantages thatthe folded portion is "1'elatively bulky and the design islimited in location to the borders' 'of the fabric. It'has now'beenfound that a design in obversegmay be obtained on both faces" of .a' fiat fabric by weavin'g'the design 'port'ionbr portions'of a flat fabric in a plurality of layers (normallytwo) and weaving a design into, each of the outer layers. A fabric so'woven not only may have a design in obverse on either face and at any desired location, for complete reversibility and unlimited variety, 'but differs little in bulk from fabrics woven entirely of single thickness.

It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a reversible woven flat fabric wherein a design in obverse appears on each face of the fabric and at any desired location, without appearance of the reverse of the design on the opposite face.

Another object of the invention is to provide a reversible woven flat fabric wherein the fabric is woven predominantly of single thickness, the design portion, continuous with the predominant portion, is woven of a plurality of thicknesses, and a design is woven into each of the outer thicknesses, whereby only the obverse of a design will appear'on either face of the fabric and at any-desired location. a

Afurther object of the invention is to provide a reversible woven flat fabric wherein the fabric is woven predominantly of single thickness, a design portion woven of. a plurality of thicknesses and either lengthwise or-crosswise of the fabric, and a design is woven into each, outer thickness, either with or superimposed upon-the basic threads. of that thickness or both, whereby any design adaptable. to

2,772,698 Patented Dec. 4, .1955

7 2 weaving may be woven'into the fabric and will appear only in obverse on either face of the fabric.

An additional object of the invention is to provide'a reversible woven flat fabric wherein the fabric is woven predominantly of single thickness and a strip continuous with and extending lengthwise or crosswise of the predominant portion is woven of double thickness with a design woven into each thickness, *whereby 'only the obverse of .a design will appear on eitherface of the strip. 1 I I 4 d,

Other objects and advantages .of the invention'jyill appear hereinafter in the detailed description, be particu-I larly pointed outin the appended c" 's, 'and' be i1li1 s' trated in the accompanying drawings,

winch. Figure 1 is a plan view on a reduced scale o} are, rsi; ble wovenflat'fabric in accordance with the piesent in: vention and bearing a crosswise design; i

Figure 2 is a plan view of. the Opposite fabric of Figure 1; V g Figure 3' is aplan viewon the scale of Figure 1 of a reversible woven flat fabric in accordance with the present invention and bearing alengthwise design;

Figure '4 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale of a flat fabric, such as that of Figural, in whichthe design extends crosswise of the fabric; Figure Sis a fragmentary transverse sectionalview on an enlarged scale of' a flat fabric, such as that of Figure 3, in which the design extend's lengthwise of the fabric. 1 I Figure 6 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale of one face of the fabric of Figure 5; and

Figure 7 is a fragmentary sectional view of one of the layers of the designportion of the fabric of Figure 4 or 5 in which superimposed ornamentation is woven into the layer. Conventionally, fiat fabrics bearing woven designs have. on oneface or surface the obverse of the design and on the opposite face or surface its reverse. However, in, a reversible woven flat fabric of the present inventiongthe design appearsonly in obverse on each face or surface of the fabric. .The fabric" of the present invention, in essence, comprises a predominant portion woven in a single layer or thickness and, at the place orl locatiofn where a. design is desired, incorporating a tubular or de'- sign portion or section extending warp-wise or weft-wise, of the predominant portion and woven of a plurality. of layers ,or thicknesses, the tubular portion having a design woven into each .of its outer layers. Such a fiat'fabric may bear on each of its .faces or surfaces any design within-the capabilities of a Jacquard loom and willbear on neither face the reverse of the design, thus rendering the fabric reversible and its reversal indiscerniblel' The variations in flat'fabrics made possible by the method of this invention are practically limitless. Thus, where a conventionally woven flat fabric must always expose the obverse and reverse of a design on its opposite faces, a fabric of the present invention may bear a design on one face and be'plain on theother, or may bear designs on both faces, whether the same or difieren-t a matter of choice, and thedesign's may beback-to-back or at ditferent'locationsQ In any case, it is "only necessary that'the portion of the material on which the design is to appear be woven in a plurality of thicknesses, so that the 'reverse'of the design woven into an outer thickness, will be hidden betweenthe thicknesses and not appear on the opposite face of the fabric. 7 l I l Several of the' numerous possible variations in the reversible woven flat fabrics of the present invention-are. illustrated in the i accompanying drawings, in; whichiike' reference characters designatelike parts. Thus, in Fig ure 1 there is showna flat fabric in which then iulti-' thickness design portion, designated as 1, extendserossface; r: the

wiseof the war p thieads to the selvage 2 at either edge or the fabric, the design po'ntion here forming the borde r of the fabric and being bounded on its inner or side edge bythe single thickness body portion 3 of which the fabric is predominantly .formedland on its outer edge" by one ofv the hems 4 at'either end of the fabric. In the fabric of Figure 3, the design portion '1" extends lengthwise of the warp threads the full length of the fabric, terminating with the fabric at either end in a hem 4. Here spacedinwardly from the sidesof the fabric, the mul'ti thickness design portion is bounded on both sides by the predominant single thickness body portion 3. In the fabrics of both figures the design has been represented the term Legend, as indicating that it may be en tirely pictorial, or a dame, such as that of a hotel or common carrier, biboth, asdesired.

The complete reversibility of. flat fabrics of the present invention is illustrated in Figure 2, wherein is shown the opposite face ofthe fa'bnicof Figure 1. It will be noted that the design, depicted by the term Legend, appears in obverse on this face of the fabric, as well, and that nowhere does there appear the reverse of the design on the opposite face of the fabric. Since the design portion 101') of each of the two illustrated forms of flat fabric is of multiple thickness, reversal of the fabric of Figure 3 will also show only the obverse of any design woven into its design portion. Too, one face of the fiat fabric may be plain or bear a different design from the opposite face. And, as will be understood, the design port-ion 1('1') need not extend the full length or Width of the fabric but may cover a small portion thereof, it only being necessary that the fabric be woven of multiple thickness over whatever portion a design is" to appear on one or the other of its faces.

As mentioned, the reversible woven fiat fabric of the present invent-ion is made on a Jacquard loom by which the warp threads are liftable individually to vary their height relative to the plane of travel of the shuttle carrying the weft or filling thread, so that the shuttle will pass under or over each warp thread, depending on the setting of the loom. Figure 4 is indicative of a fabric' having its design portion 1 extending crosswise of the fabric and the warp threads 5 and Figure 5 of a fabr ic' having its design portion extending lengthwise of the fabric in th'e direction of the warp threads, these figures thus corresponding to the fabrics of Figures 1 and 3, respectively. I-n weaving the fabric of Figure 4 the warp threads 5 and weft or filling thread 6 arewoven in single thickness over the predominant body portion 3 of the fabric; Then, at the location where a design is to appear on one or both faces of the fabric, the warp threads are" divided or separated into a plurality of groups or layers, the warp threads in the illustrated embodiment being substantially equally divided into two groups with alternate threadsin one layer and the intervening threads in the other layer. The weft thread, which may be the same as or a different color than that used in weaving the body portion 3, depending on the background desired over the design port-ion, is then interwoven with-the warpthreads of each of the plurality of layers, in such manner that the design portion 1 of the fabric will cont'ain thef samenurnber of layers or thicknesses 7 of woven material. For the illustrated two layers of warp threads, this will normally be accomplished by so lifitingthe warp threads relative to the plane of the shuttle that theweft thread will be interwoven with one. layer as the. shuttle travels away" from its box and with the other layer as the shuttle returns. As will be understood, the particular design woven into either of the outer layers so as to appear on the face or faces of the fabric, andthere woven with the same, basic warp and weft threads forming the background, will depend on the shi-fting in height of thewarp threads cream layer-as determined by'the setting of the' l'acquard attachment. V 7

lathe-fabric of Figure 3 the-design porti-gnl', as men tioned, extends lengthwise of the fabric, the warpthreads 5 Fig-ares as iii the" fabric of the precedingfigiiie,

being separated into a plurality of layers over the portion of the fabric on which a design is to appear on one or both faces and the weft thread being interwoven with the warp threads of each layer. However, since the weft thread 6' in this form is the same as lthat used in the body portion of: the fabric and its picks are divided between the layers only a cor-responding port-ion of the pi'cksyof the weft thread will appear in each layer In Figure 4 the same division: is made of the warp threads 5, with the result that the design portions 1*(1): of the fabrics of I both figures are in actuality but little thicker or bulkier than their body portions" 3: The fabrics of these two figures are, also .sinrilar i -that the basic threads of the design portion are employed for weaving the design. While characterized in the figure description as a plan view of the fabric of Figure 5, it willbeapparent that Figure 6 is illustrative equally of the fabric of- Fig. ure 4 the position of the warp and weft threads would be transposed. V

"Figure 7, showing a part ofthe upper or lower of the layers 7 (7) of the design portion 1( 1)of either of Fig ures 4 and 5,. is illustrative of the fabric of the present invention when part or all of the ornamentation is superimposed on the basic warp and weft threads of the design portion. Here, the basic threads of the layer are; both designated as 8, since either may be the warp and; the otherthe weft, depending on the direction relative to the fabric in which the design poi-tion extends. The thread 9 used for the super-imposed ornamentation, which also; may be either warp or wept, is so interwoven with the other threads of the layer as alternately to appear on the surface of one of the layers 7(7) of the design portion. .1 (1) and to float between. the layers, its appearances being. determined by the setting of the Jacquard attachment to produce the particular design desired. Also,

I depending on the interrelation between the designs on with unexposed portions of the warp thread of the other.

layer at selected points. Y 7 i From the above detailed description. it will be ap parent that there has been provided an improved" Woven. reversible flat fabric, wherein both faces have a design woven thereinto at any desired location and the design. will appear in obverse and only on the face of the fabricinto which it is Woven. It should be understood that the described and disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention and that all modifications are intended to be included which do not depart either from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims. Having described my invention, I claimz' l. A reversible woven fiat fabric comprising a predominant portion of. single thickness, a tubular portion ofa plurality of thicknesses and extending in one of the longitudinal and transverse dimensions of said fabric, anda design woven into eachof the outer thicknesses of said tubular portion.

2. A reversible woven flat fabric comprising a predominant portion of single thickness, a tubular portion of a plurality of thicknesses and extending longitudinally of s'aid'fabric, and a design woven into each of the outer thicknesses: of said tubular portion.

3. A reversiblewoven fiat fabric comprising a-predorni nant portion of single thickness, a tubular portion of a plurality of thicknesses and extending transversely of 5 6 said fabric, and a design woven into each of the outer References Cited in the file of this patent thicknesses of said tubular portion. UNITED STATES PATENTS 4. A reversible woven flat fabric comprising a predominant portion of single thickness, a tubular portion of 768,378 Kfnbbs 1904 a plurality of thicknesses and extending on one of the 5 2,145,715 Dlck 1939 longitudinal and transverse dimensions of said fabric, and 21194038 Wallace 1940 a super-imposed design woven into each of the outer 2,681,667 Slaughter June 1954 of said thicknesses of said tuhular portion using a thread 7 FOREIGN PATENTS different from the threads basic to said thickness. 4,861 Great Britain of 1888 10 457,729 Great Britain Dec. 4, 1936 

